The Republican-run government of Virginia has four days left in office, and Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., along with Democrat majorities in the Commonwealth’s legislature, are going to start the ball rolling with expanding abortion, making sure felons can vote, and implementing gun restrictions.
Responsible political leadership in Virginia might be focused on answering things like the housing affordability crisis, which has been made much more acute with the importation of foreigners to the most populous areas of the state.
Democrats coming into power in Virginia will hold a 21-19 majority in the state Senate and a 64-36 majority in the House of Delegates. Their top priorities include four proposed constitutional amendments: To expand abortion even later in the pregnancy and make it impossible to restrict (Virginia already allows most abortion up to 26 weeks — the most permissive in the entire South); to enshrine homosexual unions as a right; to automatically restore voting to felons who have completed their sentences; and to allow for mid-decade congressional redistricting ahead of the 2026 midterms, where Democrats could nuke up to four Republican-held seats through gerrymandering.
The move from a congressional delegation of six Democrats and five Republicans to a potential delegation of 10 Democrats and one Republican comes as Democrats already have numerous artificially safe congressional districts across the country, due to racialized districts allowed by the Voting Rights Act currently being challenged in the Supreme Court.
The abortion amendment has zero safeguards, as state Sen. Mark Peake pointed out, stating, “There’s no age mentioned in the constitutional amendment that just says any individual has a right to an abortion, doesn’t distinguish between adults and minors so we’re very concerned that will do away with parental consent.”
While Democrats are planning day-one action on the amendments, ensuring the redistricting measure can appear before voters in April so they can ram through the gerrymandered congressional map in time for the midterms, they also have legislative goals — including a “right-to-contraception” bill.
Furthering election tampering in Virginia, Democrat state Sen. Barbara Favola, representing deep-blue Arlington, introduced a bill that would allow people to vote even if they have been found to be incapacitated regarding a guardianship or conservatorship, requiring a separate court ruling to deem that person incapable of understanding the act of voting.
Virginia somehow already allows for absentee ballots to be counted even if received three days after Election Day, but another bill from Favola would extend the deadline for receiving them, along with identification to accompany a provisional ballot, from noon to 5:00 p.m.
Unsurprisingly, Democrats in the state want to ban AR-platform guns and high-capacity magazines. A bill from Delegate Dan Helmer, who represents far-left Fairfax, would ban importation, sale, manufacture, purchase, and transfer of any “assault” weapons, defined as essentially any modern sporting rifle or pistol, as well as any semi-automatic shotgun that is set up for home defense and has a magazine capacity of more than seven rounds.
It would also limit AR-style weapon magazines to 10 — a significant drop from the standard 30-round magazine — and ban anyone under the age of 21 from possessing a modern rifle.
Those found in violation of Helmer’s proposed law would face a Class 1 misdemeanor, with a conviction carrying a three-year ban on possession of firearms.
A bill from Sen. Jennifer Carroll Foy creates “standards of responsible conduct” for firearm manufacturers, with a civil liability provision, which essentially allows for the attorney general of Virginia — soon to be the bloodthirsty Jay Jones — to sue firearm manufacturers for the misconduct of others.
Another Helmer gem would require schools to “describe the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the United States Capitol as an unprecedented, violent attack on United States democratic institutions, infrastructure, and representatives for the purpose of overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election.”
Teachers would not be allowed to “describe, portray, or present as credible a description or portrayal of the actions precipitating or involved in the events of the January 6, 2021, insurrection as peaceful protest” or “state, suggest, or present as credible a statement or suggestion that there was extensive election fraud that could have changed or actually changed the results of the 2020 presidential election.”
The new Democrat-run trifecta in Richmond will bring with it many of these draconian changes, and likely many more — such as encouraging the gender transition of children in school, expanding Section 8 housing into neighborhoods to drive home values down, and, as has already been introduced, an increase in the minimum wage to $15, which could shutter small businesses.
Virginians can expect little modesty and probably no political cordiality from the incoming Spanberger administration, as has otherwise been the historical norm in Virginia. Virginia’s new Democrat-controlled government aims to strip as many rights, kill as many children, and disfranchise as many Virginians as possible, all in the name of opposing Trump and the will of the American people.
Breccan F. Thies is the White House correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.
